"I've never been so embarrassed in all my life," admitted Jack to the Doctor an hour later. They were sitting companionably (ha! thought the Doctor) in the kitchen of the TARDIS, dipping fish fingers in an assortment of custards. "I... just fell apart."
"Mmm," agreed the Doctor, "females of any species can cause us to do strange things, Jack." He nodded owlishly, and Jack thought he looked about fourteen, trading whispers about girls in the back of a classroom. "Our week for falling apart over human women," the Doctor offered, like a gift, and Jack tried hard not to gape in astonishment at the confidence. He swallowed hard.
"'Human'. Not River then?" Jack tried to be casual, dipping his fish finger in the lemon custard this time.
"Sarah Jane Smith," said the Doctor hoarsely, and looked away. "Her children asked me to come to her funeral." He looked incredibly woebegone, Jack thought, those ancient, sad eyes that couldn't meet his at this point in the conversation, in that baby face. And he knew that the Doctor would have had no intention of going to Sarah Jane's funeral, but that he was helpless against the children, any children, much less those of a woman he had loved.
"I'm sorry, Doc. I liked her." Jack remembered Sarah Jane. She had been in her fifties when he met her, the bookish-hot sort, feisty and intelligent. He had liked her. Dammit, he understood why the Doctor was so devastated at her loss... because he himself remembered Estelle. "This outliving them all thing is pretty much crap, Doc."
"Utter rubbish," the Doctor agreed, and - sniffling - went to work on the vanilla custard.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
"Oh bless," Evie moaned, sinking into the hot water, "this feels so good." She stretched like a cat and sank into the tub, hissing at the water foaming in the scratches on her body, until the bubbles tickled her chin. She looked at the older woman in the adjoining tub. "River, are you sure that we can get back right away? I mean, I know she's a time machine, but..."
River smiled at her. "But you've patients to see, a life to get back to, and you're fretting over lost time that isn't really lost. I know how you feel; I did the same thing the entire way here. Why don't you ask her? She likes you and she'd probably tell you. If she knows. Or knew. Or will know."
(reassurance, a sense of time, affection)
River laughed. "There, you see?"
Evie nodded, eyes round. "It's amazing when she does that," she said, "especially when it's just... conversational. I mean, when we were trying to... when she showed me the way to fix your nightmares, well... it was intense. But this... it was just like she's another woman, putting her two bits in the conversation."
(affection, amusement)
Evie laughed. "I like you too, Sexy Thing," she said to the air, "but I would still like to get back to my patients as soon as possible. I suppose..." she trailed off.
"Suppose what, Evie?" asked River quietly.
Evie sighed. "I suppose I should tell Professor Siggy that I'm alive, and find out whether he... whether he wants me to resign or, or..."
(sympathy, reassurance)
"What happened, Evie? I know Jack would never hurt you, so what happened down there?" River looked so concerned, so worried.
So Evie told her.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
"So that's why I have to see if Professor Siggy wants me to resign," said Evie tearfully, "or at least take a leave of absence until I can get my own problems under control. What use am I to... what?"
River was shaking her head, half angrily and half sympathetically. "I think you're doing both of them a disservice, Evie... not to mention yourself." Evie stared and River's expression softened as she said, "Evie, you cut yourself too little slack for being human. And if you really truly think that either your lover or your mentor would just... just drop you because you've shown them a little human weakness, then you don't have a lot of faith in them, do you?" Evie opened her mouth to argue, then looked thoughtful and closed it again. River hurried on, saying, "Now you're going to worry and feel guilty because you think you hurt Jack by not trusting him, right?" She laughed at the shocked how-did-you-know? expression on the younger woman's face. "He's stronger than that, Evie, and he loves you. Let him help you, please?"
"Yeah," said Jack from the doorway, "Let me help you." He leered at them both in a friendly fashion. "Either of you, or both. I can take it." He walked into the room and kissed River firmly but briefly and then bent over Evie in her bubbles and kissed her far more thoroughly.
When they came up for air River was gone.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
The Doctor looked up from his custard as his wife entered the kitchen, wearing nothing but a towel and a smile. "Hello, Sweetie," she said cheekily, and sat down across from him. Thank goodness the fish fingers are gone, she thought, I can handle the custard alone.
"Is she alright?"
"She will be," River assured him, "but she had a couple of panic attacks down there and she... she's used to being the helper, not asking for help. Threw her off a bit. Jack will take care of her, if he has to shag her silly to do it."
"Mmm..." he agreed, and dipped a long finger into the custard, holding it out to her. She licked it and then took the finger into her mouth, sucking lightly, and the Doctor closed his eyes to better concentrate on the sensation. River let his finger pop free and he whinged a bit.
"Jack alright?"
The Doctor stood up, walked around the table, and lifted the dripping mass of River's hair gently off her neck. He loved her hair. "He will be," he said between kisses and nips at her damp skin, "but the... fragility of human life hit him hard. Human psyche with the Time Lord lifespan. It's hard for him."
"For everyone."
"Yeah. River?" he murmured against the soft skin of her throat, "let's celebrate life. Right now."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Jack and Evie walked into the tent that served as a temporary office for the head of the Psychiatry department, and a middle-aged man (Jack reflected that in this century that meant that he was about ninety years old) who looked remarkably like Sigmund Freud looked up. "Evie," he cried, "Oh dear, you've been hurt." He peered at Jack over the lenses of the half-moon glasses he affected, and said hesitantly, "Boe? Is that you, my boy? Did you come to help with the cleanup effort? You look..." he trailed off, perplexed.
"Older. He looks older, Professor Siggy," supplied Evie, "He's a Time Agent, remember?" She smiled at her mentor and kissed his cheek. "He's going to drag me off again for a bit, but I needed to check in with you, make sure you were okay, and tell you..." she took a deep breath, "and tell you what happened to me after the quake, because it... it concerns your area of expertise." She was clinging tightly to Jack's hand, but other than that and the slight hesitation in her speech, she seemed absolutely her normal and cheerful self.
"Oh dear," said the professor again, "it happened, did it? Scotophobia or claustrophobia?" He patted Evie's shoulder as she gaped at him in shock, but Jack was on the move, stalking toward the smaller man, anger snapping in his blue eyes.
"You knew about this," he said in a deadly quiet voice, and it wasn't a question, "you knew about this and you didn't help her? What kind of shrink knows about a crippling phobia in one of his students - one of his colleagues - and doesn't help her?" Jack's voice was rising now as he advanced on the smaller man. "Why didn't you help her?"
"Jack," Evie said quietly, gripping his hand even tighter, "it wouldn't be ethical for him to treat me unasked, unless I was a danger to someone."
"You were a danger to yourself, Evie!" Jack shouted, rounding on her. She did not flinch, and reached up with her free hand to stroke his jaw.
"Not really, love," she said softly, "but I'm so glad you were there to help me through it, Jack, because I... I needed you." She turned to the shorter man. "Both, by the way," she said clinically, "and it appears that it has to be both darkness and a tight space to trigger it." She turned a smile on Jack and stood on her toes to kiss him. "And the voice of someone I trust implicitly to talk me through it. Twice. But how did you know?" she asked her teacher.
"I didn't know, as such," admitted the professor, "but there was a seventy-eight percent probability of one of the two phobias based on what you stole from the medical technology lab," he smiled at her expression and said gently, "You thought I didn't know? When a good and honest and diligent student does something uncharacteristic like that, we notice, and we watch to see what happens. And Evie..." he reached out to pat her shoulder again, "I was your teacher in telepathic psychotherapy. I would not pry intentionally, but when you started you were clumsy at shielding your surface thoughts, and..." he spread his hands helplessly and cleared his throat, suddenly becoming very formal and academic. "Now, Professor Jones, if you feel up to it, we could use your help in the infirmary. Nothing urgent we can't handle, but some of those students... what?" Jack was glaring at him.
"I wanted her to stay out of it until she recovered, in case you hadn't noticed the bruises and scrapes, Professor," he said scathingly, knowing he was being unfair and not caring one damn bit, "but she insisted on checking in with you. And now, if she'll allow it," he stopped to kiss Evie hard on the lips, "I'm going to take her with me, shag her senseless, and get her a good night's sleep. We'll be back in an hour." His mood was suddenly very, very good and he laughed at the bemused expression on the professor's face. "Time Agent, remember?" he said cheekily, saluted American-fashion and left, Evie clinging to his hand and waving goodbye to her mentor, laughing.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
"Will you help with the cleanup effort, Jack?" Evie asked as they entered the TARDIS.
Jack nodded. "Of course I will. Don't know if River and the Doctor should though, they took enough of a risk coming to find us. Doc?" he called, "River? We're back." There was no response from either of the people so addressed, but Evie got a definite impression of (busy now) from the TARDIS and she laughed.
"Come on, sweet Jack," she said, pulling him down to her. "I'm ready to be shagged senseless now. More than ready. And Jack?"
"Hmm?" It was difficult for Jack to articulate as he nibbled on her ear.
"Much as I love feeling you come apart over me, after the day we've had, I'd like to be on top."
And Jack's laugh rang out as he swept her up and carried her to his room.